During the pendency of a patent application, U.S. Patent Law allows for the filing of “continuation” applications which are entitled to the benefit of the filing date of an earlier filed case (the “parent” application), provided that the specification of the parent presents adequate written description for the continuation’s claims in order to satisfy the statutory conditions of 35 U.S.C. Section 112. This section of the code requires that “[t]he specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same.”
Unlike continuation practice in other countries, U.S. Patent Law also allows the addition of new subject matter not previously presented in the parent application, while still maintaining at least partial benefit of the earlier filing date. Such continuation applications containing new matter are called continuation-in-part applications, or “CIPs.” With a CIP application, the subject matter carried over from the parent application will be entitled to the earlier priority date of the parent, while the newly added disclosure will be entitled to the later filing date of the CIP.
